NATURE CENTER TALKS ON TAP

Missouri Conservation Department officials and representatives of three companies involved in designing a Conservation Campus for Cape Girardeau will meet with local officials and civic leaders today and Wednesday at the department's regional offices in Cape Girardeau County North Park.

The meetings are being held to discuss plans for the $4.7 million nature center that is slated to be built in the park.

The meeting begins at 1 p.m. today. It will be followed by a reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Drury Lodge. Conservation Department Director Jerry Conley is expected to attend the reception and Wednesday's meeting.

Kathy Love, administrator of the Conservation Department's outreach and education division, will direct the meetings.

The three design firms involved in the project are Peckham and Wright Architects of Columbia and the Washington, D.C., design firms of AldrichPears Associates and the Portico Group. The design team includes landscape and exhibit designers, a Conservation Department spokesperson said.

The meetings are designed to get ideas from local officials, Southeast Missouri State University and civic leaders about what should be included in the center.

One suggestion that already has surfaced is that the center should include an exhibit dealing with earthquakes, department officials said.

In November 1998, the Missouri Conservation Commission approved the project at its meeting in St. Joseph. The commission approved the project in part because it has the backing of Southeast Missouri State University.

The project will include a mobile classroom that will take the conservation message to schools throughout Southeast Missouri, commissioners said.

The county has donated land in the park. To move the project ahead, the county offered to finance it through a lease-purchase agreement. The county would arrange financing through bonds, and the state would make the payments.

In approving the project, the commission said it would be looking for financial contributions to enhance the basic campus. An outdoor amphitheater and demonstration areas of the Mississippi River and Little River Drainage District are among the enhancements envisioned.

Missouri operates four nature centers. The Cape Girardeau center will be the only one with a specific partnership with a university.

The university has agreed to provide a full-time coordinator of internships. The university also will provide equipment and materials for laboratories and nature study.

Southeast plans to make use of the center and outdoor educational areas for university instruction.